A little drum break and Latin groove from Art Blakey, on Safari, by Horace Silver, originally on Horace Silver Trio, vol. 1, on Blue Note. Originally a 78 release, actually— the recording is less than three minutes long, and it’s a tight little arrangement, with a 16 bar drum break.
The structure of it is very clean— eight bars of a tom tom thing, a two measure pitch bend thing played three times, then a two measure ruff lick, and out.
Snares are off for all of this, with the drum in a medium tuning, so the heads have some flex for the pitch bend. I imagine it helps having a calf head. The pitch bends are played with the right hand, with the left hand flexing the head— slowed down I thought I heard a rim click in the middle of that opening 16th triplet, but I don’t hear it at full speed. Figure out your own way of doing it.
